Shearwater

Siraan Tomlinson

1. When did you graduate from Shearwater and what did you do after?

I immediately began working as much as I could and saving it all in preparation for going to Japan.

2. How do you look back at your time here. What is a memory that stands out?

I can still remember when I was in year 12, building a bed for my D&T Major Design Project, I had FINALLY bought my timber and was cutting it to size when I realised I had cut the mitre joins the opposite way as to which they were supposed to be cut. I can still remember the despair and devastation I felt, thinking that I was going to have to buy new timber, when a combined effort from my good friend Campbell and one of the workshop crew Tony brought about a genius idea which ended up improving the original design drastically. Just one of the self labelled *disasters* I had throughout building that bed.
The thing I learned from that is, no matter how carefully you plan and organise everything, there are random factors that you can never take into account and can ruin your idea if you are inflexible to change.

3. Are you still in touch with former class mates or teachers?

I am in contact with most of my old classmates over Facebook and some of my closer friends over MSN/Skype which is the best I can manage from Japan. I am still hoping that someone will realise the opportunity of having a semi-competent Japanese speaking friend in Japan and get over here before my Visa runs out!
Of my teachers the only contact I have is the occasional glimpse and/or hello when I am Skyping with my family and someone is over at my parents place.

4 What is it that you are currently pursuing in your life?

I am pursuing mastery or at least high proficiency in my Japanese language ability, after my Visa finishes in Japan I shall return home, work a lot and if I don’t find something I really want to study then I will be off to another country, I intend on being able to speak; English (of course), Japanese, German, French and Italian.
Basically I want to learn as many languages as I can, the ones I have named are just either of particular interest to me or are simply widely spoken languages. I believe that in learning many languages it will increase my ability to communicate with people from a wider variety of cultures and backgrounds, which is something I hold to be very important to me.